Extent of injuries unknown.
A surfer in his twenties has been hit by a “fifteen-foot” Great White shark at Bunker Bay, an awesomely pretty crescent of white sand and green water almost at the tip of Cape Naturaliste, a little north of Margaret River.
Phil Mummert, twenty-eight, was surfing The Farm, a wave protected from today’s south-west onshore. He was bitten on the right thigh, helped by a longboarder to the beach and stabilised at a nearby house before being choppered to Bunbury hospital.
A local surfer on the scene said, “the White came out the water and inhaled the board pretty much. The guy managed to roll out of the way and then a longboarder got him to the beach.”
Mummert’s girl, Mish Wright, posted an update, with photos, on Facebook.
“Just want to let everyone know that Phil is doing okay! He was bitten by a shark at Bunker Bay this afternoon and got a few chunks taken out of his leg. I honestly don’t know how a person can see a total stranger getting attacked by a 4m great white shark and swim towards to save him so we are beyond grateful to everyone that helped save Phil’s life. So lucky that Phil got away with his life and limbs and beyond lucky that we live in such a kind and caring community. So thankful for everyone who carried him to shore and for the ones that held his leg together for half an hour while waiting for the ambulance. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts — thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ve been flown to the hospital and just waiting for him to get stitched up. Phil’s doing great and singing [baby] shark do do do do do do.”
Nine years ago, bodyboarder Kyle Burden, twenty-one, was bitten in half at a nearby beach called Boneyards by a Great White witnesses say was six metres long or twenty feet.
Both waves, Bonyards and The Farm, are right there on Cape Naturaliste, a fist of geography that juts out on the western edge of Geographe Bay, home to a thriving New Zealand fur seal colony.
Plenty of White around the Cape?
Yeah, there is.
Plenty of ’em circling the rest of Australia, too.
Today’s attack is the third hit on surfers by Great Whites in two months.
Three weeks ago, fifteen-year-old Mani Hart-Deville was killed by a White at Wilsons Headland, just north of Coffs Harbour; the previous month saw sixty-year-old surfer Rob Pedretti killed by a White near the Surfing Australia High Performance Camp at Casuarina, just south of the Gold Coast.
Two weeks ago, a ten-year-old by was snatched off the deck of his daddy’s fishing boat by a twelve-foot White on Tasmania’s north-west coast.
More on the latest hit as it comes.
(And read about the ethics of executing Great Whites, here.)